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Old Posted Nov 18, 2009, 6:40 PM
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stepper77 stepper77 is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: East Bay
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Solano County, CA: Fairfield, Vacaville, Suisun City

Solano County is located in the northeastern extent of the Bay Area as it transitions from the Sacramento Delta. I previously featured two other cities in the county, Vallejo and Benicia, in a thread here. Vacaville and Fairfield are, for the most part, valley sprawl and I always dismissed them as such. But, when I decided to actually check them out, I found them to have some buildings of interest in their respective downtowns. Suisun City is an oddity I'll just have to show in photos.

Vacaville (pop 96,735)

Other than speeding by it on Highway 80 on my way to or from Sacramento, I never paid much attention to Vacaville other than as a rest stop. In fact, I only just recently learned it has a proper, if small, downtown and was quite surprised by it.







































































































































This building isn't in downtown and, in any other city, would be pretty unremarkable. But, I included it because I always see it from the freeway (it's on a hill and taller than it looks) and it's the only "landmark" that let's me know I'm in Vacaville when I'm driving through.



Fairfield (pop 106,521)

I am more familiar with this city as I have family who live there. Fairfield is the second largest city in Solano County behind Vallejo and is the county seat. It is located virtually equidistant between San Francisco and Sacramento. I was always given the impression that downtown Fairfield was a little "rough", particularly at night. But, to its credit, I was taking photos on a Saturday mid morning and most of the stores and local restaurants were open and there were plenty of people milling around (not that you'll see them in my photos).























I don't really know the story of this building other than it is an old prison, oddly located in the middle of the county courthouse parking lot and not open to explore.





































































Le Ballon Rouge?





















































Oops...what's this gaping whole in downtown?



















In addition to being the home to Travis Airforce Base, Fairfield is also the location of the Jellybelly Factory...good times



The pedestrian bridge to our next destination....



Suisun City (pop 26,118)

Located literally a mile from downtown Fairfield on the opposite side of CA-12, Suisun City (pronounced soosoon) is almost deliberately separated from it's sister city requiring a round about drive to get to. It is situated between the highway and the Suisun Marsh.

















The mountain in the background is Mount Diablo about 30 miles away, the prominent peak in the Bay Area with Walnut Creek and Concord, among others, at its base.























Downtown Fairfield "skyline"















Another downtown empty lot, with so little brick in California, it's sad whatever there was lost.





The sun was going down, so, the lighting isn't the best in some of these

























































































This building is Suisun City Hall







A minute drive out of Suisun and you're in the country, Mt Diablo again.



________________________________________________________________
Tour of California
1: Los Angeles, 2: Hollywood, Glendale, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, 3: Riverside, Santa Ana, Long Beach, 4: San Jose, 5: San Diego, 6: Fresno, 7: Stockton, Modesto, 8: Gold Country, 9: Eureka, Arcata, 10: Monterey, Carmel, 11: Santa Cruz, 12: Sacramento Pt One, 13: Sacramento Pt Two, 14: Roseville & Folsom, 15: Concord & Walnut Creek, 16: Tri-Valley, 17: Berkeley, Emeryville, 18: Fremont, 19: Santa Clara, Mountain View, Palo Alto, 20: Redwood City, Foster City, San Mateo, 21: Oakland, 22: Benicia, Vallejo, 23: Napa, St. Helena, 24: Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, 25: San Rafael, 26: Larkspur, Mill Valley, 27: Sausalito, Tiburon, 28: Hollister, San Juan Bautista, 29: Long Beach 2008, 30: Venice, 31: Santa Monica, 32: Sacramento Pt 3, 33: Solvang, 34: Alameda, 35: Knights Ferry, 36: California Zephyr, 37: Colfax, 38: Davis, 39: Oakdale, 40: San Francisco Pt 1, San Francisco Pt 2, 41: Chico, Redding, 42: Kings Beach, 43: Merced, 44: Gold Country pt 2, 45: Gold Country pt 3, 46: Sonora
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